1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for wireless communication. More particularly, the present invention provides a system and method for medium wide band communications by impulse radio.
2. Related Art
The world of cyberspace is flourishing with new services and a diversity of information, but gaining full participation in these services is often limited because high-bandwidth access to the NII (National Information Infrastructure) remains expensive and scarce. In most cases, high-capacity access to the NII is available only through monopoly service providers who offer limited options at high prices. Where competitive options are available, they are often priced beyond the reach of individuals and local institutions. An unlicensed NII Band can help alleviate this access bottleneck by creating a new competitive access option which operates without any single gatekeeper. Such a service will stimulate competition with existing access providers and offer consumers a more flexible and affordable method of connecting to the NII.
The FCC has provided unlicenced devices with access to 300 MHz of spectrum at 5 GHz to accommodate the demand by educational, medical, business, industrial and consumer users for broadband multimedia communications. Unlicenced NII (U-NII) devices must share the spectrum with primary services without causing radio interference to those services. The FCC has adopted technical restrictions for U-NII devices, particularly transmit power and out-of-band emission limits. The FCC has also denied access to specific portions of the spectrum where sharing would be particularly difficult. Specifically, the FCC is providing U-NII devices access to three 100 MHz bands at 5.15–5.25 GHz, 5.25–5.35 GHz and 5.725–5.825 GHz. Thus, there is a need to develop communication methods and systems that can use these available 100 MHz bands to meet the high speed data requirements of the present and future.